Hi Roland and Jens,
A belated greeting to all our
fans.
Last year was a very busy time for Procol and I still would like to
apologise for no-show in South Africa – thru'
no fault of mine. Pictures on YouTube and speculation about what happened are rather vague, from 'I fell
down drunk' to 'I tripped over a lead on stage' ! What in fact happened in
Cape Town is that after my Birthday dinner the band, crew and various guests
strolled to a bar for a nightcap, that was the last thing I remember.
Apparently I was drugged, escorted to my hotel room, and then was found on
the floor, unconscious, in a pool of blood coming out of my left ear, by
Matt Pegg (bless him!).
I was duly taken, after a lot of hard work by Chris Cooke, to the Christian Barnard Hospital in Cape Town, where I woke up a couple of days later not knowing what happened, or where I was; and with a fractured skull. After a twelve-hours flight, Franky joined me in hospital where I remained ten days in Intensive Care, then staying in a ward for three weeks until I was fit to fly back to England.
I would like to thank all of you who sent messages and for your thoughts and prayers that helped me thru' this hard time.
Not knowing what would happen with singing and performing, Procol Harum set off to Denmark to play in Skagen on 7 July. All was well and now I could look forward to go to the USA for our six-week tour. It was hard and tiring, but as usual fans were there for us and again it was great to meet and see all of you .